Rwanda and the New Scramble for Africa: From Tragedy to Useful Imperial Fiction

Robin Philpot's vast and methodical research, extensive interviews, and close analysis of events, testimony in courts, and popular writings on the Rwandan Genocide show not only that that official narrative is false, but that it was edified to cover up the causes of the tragedy and to protect the criminals responsible. What's more, to make that story more believable, the storytellers unfailingly reproduced the literary traditions, clichés, and metaphors that provided the underpinnings of slavery, the slave-trade, and colonialism.